Data Recovery programs?

[Lerian]

The only good free one is Recuva/.

+1

[Kaine]

The only good free one is Recuva/.

+1

++1

(well short of pulling out a Backtrack Linux live install)

[codec_spurt]

The only good free one is Recuva/.

+1

++1

(well short of pulling out a Backtrack Linux live install)

I feel like the chap at the party that is just not getting the joke.

One more time, is this hardware data recovery off a failed drive, or stuff you did not back up? Or variations of?

And please could you elucidate on the Backtrack Linux Live install comment Kaine?



I know it is good for a few things, but data recovery? I thought it was more a penetration testing type of thingy?

It's ok if you don't have the time, but don't be obtuse and tease us eh?, some of us come around here to learn as well as teach.

Really, interested what you meant.

Any further comments would be greatly appreciated.


cheers.

[highkoo]

Recuva and Easeus are pretty good.

I think if its more than just a simple undelete type thing, definitely try TestDisk though. And if that doesnt fix it, try PhotoRec, which comes with it, to recover stuff.
Dont be scared off by the cmd gui!
It sees everything!

Goooood luck!

[Kriminal]

Never had much luck on my old pc recovering stuff. It took hours, found files in formats i couldnt save (ie songs not in mp3 or wav) or convert, and when it did find stuff, wouldnt save to the drive it hsd scanned....and i only had one drive

Shame, some stuff i want still on there.

[Kaine]

I feel like the chap at the party that is just not getting the joke.

One more time, is this hardware data recovery off a failed drive, or stuff you did not back up? Or variations of?

Sorry, Recuva ( http://www.piriform.com/recuva ) will recover files after mistaken deletion or drive corruption etc. It's saved my ass a few times.

A failed drive to me says mechanical issue and if you want to fix that then it's time to send it to a specialist so they can swap the relevent parts in a clean room. The are tricks to getting stuck drives working again briefly, but they are likely to destroy the drive in the mid-term, so if your data is important your probably best off paying for it to be done properly.

And please could you elucidate on the Backtrack Linux Live install comment Kaine?



I know it is good for a few things, but data recovery? I thought it was more a penetration testing type of thingy?

Its always been billed as the ultimate forensic data recovery tool but somewhere over the last few years the focus seems to have shifted to the penertration testing side of things as that seems to be what people are interested in currently.

This should give you a quick introduction http://www.linuxforu.com/2011/04/digita ... ck-part-2/ althrough a quick google search should pull you up a whole wealth of resources to read through.

http://www.google.co.uk/#site=&source=h ... 40&bih=845

[codec_spurt]

Never had much luck on my old pc recovering stuff. It took hours, found files in formats i couldnt save (ie songs not in mp3 or wav) or convert, and when it did find stuff, wouldnt save to the drive it hsd scanned....and i only had one drive

Shame, some stuff i want still on there.

Know what you mean mate. Every single time I needed data recovery. It never worked.

I spent 500 quid to get my hard disk recovered at college. Cost me a whole year.

Yes, I would have had it backed up, but this was when cd-writers did not exist.

Well they did, I bought the Iomega one at great expense. They replaced it FOUR (4) times.

Kids these days. Don't rely on these programs - back up your data. It's not like when I was young .


Btw, Kriminal, if you still have the drive, maybe someone here could have a go at it.
I'm sure Kaine is a master in the field. Something to think about. Don't totally write it off. And if he doesn't have the time to do it, if he tells me the best program to use, I'll give it a shot. I wouldn't want paying, well maybe a few presets ..

[highkoo]

I respectfully offer another viewpoint;
Ive never failed to retrieve data from a drive.
Ive done it maybe ten or twelve times.

Unless the drive is very broken, physically, its usually possible to get at least a big chunk of the data back. And twice I got stuff off of drives that were a bit screwy physically even.
Albeit, it usually takes days and comes back in unnamed raw files that have to be sussed out.

+1 for backup. I run Acronis every other night and do a full mirror.
But I think everyone has to lose something dear to really learn that lesson.

[codec_spurt]

I feel like the chap at the party that is just not getting the joke.

One more time, is this hardware data recovery off a failed drive, or stuff you did not back up? Or variations of?

Sorry, Recuva ( http://www.piriform.com/recuva ) will recover files after mistaken deletion or drive corruption etc. It's saved my ass a few times.

A failed drive to me says mechanical issue and if you want to fix that then it's time to send it to a specialist so they can swap the relevent parts in a clean room. The are tricks to getting stuck drives working again briefly, but they are likely to destroy the drive in the mid-term, so if your data is important your probably best off paying for it to be done properly.

And please could you elucidate on the Backtrack Linux Live install comment Kaine?



I know it is good for a few things, but data recovery? I thought it was more a penetration testing type of thingy?

Its always been billed as the ultimate forensic data recovery tool but somewhere over the last few years the focus seems to have shifted to the penertration testing side of things as that seems to be what people are interested in currently.

This should give you a quick introduction http://www.linuxforu.com/2011/04/digita ... ck-part-2/ althrough a quick google search should pull you up a whole wealth of resources to read through.

http://www.google.co.uk/#site=&source=h ... 40&bih=845

Ah so Recuva comes from the same stable as CCleaner. Nice.


And thanks for the other links. I've been concentrating on Nmap specifically for penetration testing. Even though it's included in that Backtrack release. One day I'll get round to cracking my neighbours wifi. Not really, just kidding. Nothing could interest me less.


I didn't know it had such great tools for data recovery. I use WinHex when I need such things, but like most other things it doesn't work very well. And as you probably know WinHex is one of the major computer forensic tools available.

Keep your data backed up eh?


Thanks Kaine, much appreciated!

[Kriminal]

The drive still works, its just been formatted 2 or 3 times due to corruption (i think)

[codec_spurt]

I respectfully offer another viewpoint;
Ive never failed to retrieve data from a drive.
Ive done it maybe ten or twelve times.

Unless the drive is very broken, physically, its usually possible to get at least a big chunk of the data back. And twice I got stuff off of drives that were a bit screwy physically even.
Albeit, it usually takes days and comes back in unnamed raw files that have to be sussed out.

+1 for backup. I run Acronis every other night and do a full mirror.
But I think everyone has to lose something dear to really learn that lesson.

Well, money talks...

eh eh..

Maybe you could help out Kriminal with his drive?

Really, I have NEVER been able to recover data from a drive.
You say different. I believe you.


Acronis isn't very good any more though is it?


Btw, I didn't just lose data, I lost years of my life and thousands of pounds.
I know what data means. It is a lot easier/cost effective to just back it up in the first place, these days, anyway.




This subject is very close to my heart, so it is really very interesting for me to hear what you have to say.

[codec_spurt]

The drive still works, its just been formatted 2 or 3 times due to corruption (i think)

Well, that should make things easier.


Can highkoo spin his magic?

[highkoo]

Id take a crack at it.
Im not really an expert, Im just persistent.
Ive just done it for friends/family/bosses.
It just takes a lot of time. And for some reason, depending on what kind of files you want to recover, and what happened to the drive, different apps are more capable at getting different stuff.

Formatted twice?
I dont know. Thats almost like you were trying to get rid of it.
I dont know how reliable that would be especially if it was formatted to get around bad bits.
How full did it get between and since the formats? If you were filling it back up, its kind of like it got obliterated four times I think.

If the drive still works, let PhotoRec scan the whole drive and see what it sees...
It will show every friggin thing on there in my experience.
Whats broken will be broken, but it will show it.
So you might at least see if there is hope for what you searching for.

[Kriminal]

I didnt have a choice with the formats, it was the only way i could get get it working again. Physically its fine, my son uses the pc. Slow tho, 9 years old*.
Its just a few audio files from old songs, and photos i would like to save, but nothing major.

I can put it in my newest pc, i can prob then do a recovery myself.

Thanks for the ides and help, its not that bad tho. I have hundreds of cds/dvds as i always backed stuff up, just missed a few



*the pc and the boy are both 9, the pc is the slow one

[xNiMiNx]

Never had much luck on my old pc recovering stuff. It took hours, found files in formats i couldnt save (ie songs not in mp3 or wav) or convert, and when it did find stuff, wouldnt save to the drive it hsd scanned....and i only had one drive

Shame, some stuff i want still on there.

Only one drive could be one of the reasons you had a hard time recovering data. When you install a new app, even a data recovery one, to the drive youre trying to recover data from, youre overwriting data.

But the other reason is just the software you chose. I was there, lots of time spent scanning, more time spent going thru thousands of files with vague names/extensions. As i said earlier, the one that worked the best for me was Ontrack Recovery. I also noticed that some programs were better at finding certain things like pictures and audio, than another.

So my tips to anyone who ends up in this situation, try different methods of recovery, and definately dont do squat with the drive until youve given up recovery attempts. Dont make new files, dont install software, dont tell the recovery app to put the files onto the same drive, nada. Doing so is just making recovery harder.